Month: January 2015

Today we discussed how childhood experiences can play a massive part in the way people see themselves today. It was really beneficial for group members to be able to reflect on their own childhood to make some sense of what made them who they are today. As a result of this discussion, members could challenge unhelpful thoughts they had of themselves while being supported by others in the group.

It was good to welcome Rebekah Moore from the ‘See Me’ campaign. ‘See me’ is Scotland’s National Programme to end mental health stigma and discrimination, enabling people who experience mental health problems to live fulfilled lives. Group members really engaged in discussions with Rebekah about their experiences of discrimination and looked at ways they can work together as part of the movement to end mental health stigma and discrimination. The group would like to thank Rebekah for taking the time to visit the group. For further information on ‘See Me’ please click the link below;

It was really nice to welcome Geoffrey Baines back to the group as our guest speaker.

Some of the topics we covered today included motivation and energy. Some of the things that energized group members were;

Music

Dance

Running

Healing

Swimming

Films

When feeling low and depressed we can tend to lose interest in things we would normally enjoy doing. It can seem a chore to set the alarm or to even get out of bed to do these things even though we know we will probably feel a lot better for doing it. This led us on to looking at motivation and discussing the things we put in place to achieve these things. If you are going to the gym for example, it is not the gym itself that is the motivating factor, it could be arranging the transport to take you there. Arranging your transport is the habit because it pre-creates the desired activity. One of the ideas that came up for people who are struggling to get out of bed was for someone to use one of their favourite pieces of music set up as an alarm to go off. We then discussed the characters in the classic 1939 film; The Wizard of Oz. As Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Tin man, and the the lion were all travelling on the yellow brick road to see the wizard they actually already had all the qualities inside them that they wanted from the wizard and discovered they had already been using them on their journey.

We thought we would use Geoffrey’s cartoon picture for this post as it conveys such a good perspective on events to think of three things a day to which you can say; “That went well”. This resonated well with our weekly round up of the ‘Good notice board’.

We would like to thank Geoffrey for giving us his time and further inspiring us.

Today’s meeting was a time of reflecting on how people had managed the Festive period and what their hopes were for the group in the coming year.

As mentioned in previous posts, the Christmas period can be a very challenging time for people, which in turn can lead to suicidal thoughts. Group members mentioned that while it had been a hard time for them, they where able to use their learned self-awareness to put things in place to keep safe. Some of the resources that helped included; using crisis services, phoning a friend and using the group’s “safe card”. They were glad this period of the year was over and that they had managed to get through it. Having got through it, they can now use this experience to help them in subsequent years. There was a sense of relief that they could now get back into some sort of routine. While people can find it hard to get back into a routine after the break especially with the cold dark mornings, people agreed that routine was good for their well-being.

As today was the first group of 2015, we had a discussion on what people’s hopes where for this coming year. Some of the ideas included;

Having a session on how food can affect our mood

Having more social activities outwith the group

Having a session on poetry

Producing a film for the Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Festival.

Next week we will be welcoming Geoffrey Baines as our first guest speaker of the year.